Watch Durkoala explore the Magical Girl Genre! Part 1: Card Captor Sakura

[deuterio12]

Good point, tentacles allow for cool action scenes without any serious damage.

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considering the fact that everyone with magic in this setting appears to be incredibly physically competent, possibly hinting that magic just makes your body better in general.

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The most physically competent human character in the show is Meiling, who manages to battle The Fight card one on one, proves to have better reflexes than Sakura during The Twin capture, and can send rock statues of her own size flying with her naked fists. While cracking them. She's explicitly stated to have no magic ability whatsoever.

Sakura is physically competent because daddy taught her to exercise regularly, being on the cheerleading group and rolling to school and everything (and it is implied Toya does so as well). Syaoran does his chinese martial exercises regularly. Yukito isn't an human.

Heck, even Tomoyo's mother is physically competent because she's big on tracking train.

It's kinda of a good lesson. "Just because you have magic powers don't forget to live an healthy lifestyle kids!"

[Durkoala]

Actually, tentacles make a lot of sense in a children's show. First off, you can easily adapt all sorts of things into that mold--limbs, hair, amorphous fluid, vaguely-defined "solid energy" (eg Shadow), etc.--so almost any elemental-themed monster could have a tentacle attack. More importantly, tentacles lend themselves to grappling, which is seen as less violent than other forms of attack. This lets you both keep the rating down and imperil your heroes without straining too much when they end up surviving without any crippling injuries. If Sakura had ended up impaled on a tree branch instead of wrapped up in wooden pseudopods, that would have been too violent for a kid's show, and also Sakura would be either dead or Wolverine.

(This is also a response to everybody who's replied to this. Mewtarthio was just the only one without any spoiler boxes)

Yes, that explains the tentacles nicely. Believe it or not, the... naughtier side of tentacles wasn't on my mind at all: I was just noticing a similar pattern in the attacks.

@deuterio12; sakura's outfit. That makes a lot of sense, surprisingly. If Tomoyo was better at personal space and didn't look up Sakura's dress twice (ish), I'd even say it was normal.

Also, for some reason Sakura could be Wolverine. I really want to know how that makes sense.

[Yuki Akuma]

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The most physically competent human character in the show is Meiling, who manages to battle The Fight card one on one, proves to have better reflexes than Sakura during The Twin capture, and can send rock statues of her own size flying with her naked fists. While cracking them. She's explicitly stated to have no magic ability whatsoever.

Sakura is physically competent because daddy taught her to exercise regularly, being on the cheerleading group and rolling to school and everything (and it is implied Toya does so as well). Syaoran does his chinese martial exercises regularly. Yukito isn't an human.

Heck, even Tomoyo's mother is physically competent because she's big on tracking train.

It's kinda of a good lesson. "Just because you have magic powers don't forget to live an healthy lifestyle kids!"

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Magic certainly seems to have something to do with physical energy, at least - Sakura and Toya are both shown to be extremely lethargic when they don't have much of it. Fujitaka is a reincarnation of Clow Reed (in the manga, which has a slightly different ending), who was shown to be well in his prime up until he died of old age. He didn't look a day over thirty, at any rate. This may just have been age-retardation magic, though, considering Eriol is the same age as Fujitaka but doesn't look a day over ten years old.

Meiling is, of course, the most physically adept person in the cast, and has no magical potential. I'm not saying to be physically fit you have to be magical - just that being physically fit seems to come naturally to magic users.

Maybe Clow was just a physical fitness nut and passed it on to his descendants and reincarnation. But I still think magic has a bit to do with being a badass, even if you can also be badass without it.

Tomoyo's mom is a good point. I forgot about her. I guess Sakura and Toya have good genes from both sides of the family (even though they apparently skipped their mother)!

Edit: I'm not sure I agree with 'Yukito isn't human, so it doesn't count' as an argument. But that's getting into fanon territory on my part. Which this whole thing is, honestly...

[deuterio12]

@deuterio12; sakura's outfit. That makes a lot of sense, surprisingly. If Tomoyo was better at personal space and didn't look up Sakura's dress twice (ish), I'd even say it was normal.

Yeah, Tomoyo has a quite unique concept of "personal space".

Spoiler: Between-chapters pic from the early manga, no actual spoiler

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The authors swear that this scene is simply Tomoyo fixing Sakura's hair as they get ready for a festival or something.

Also, for some reason Sakura could be Wolverine. I really want to know how that makes sense.

That was actually more of a joke based on a long-shot speculation.

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Magic certainly seems to have something to do with physical energy, at least - Sakura and Toya are both shown to be extremely lethargic when they don't have much of it. Fujitaka is a reincarnation of Clow Reed (in the manga, which has a slightly different ending), who was shown to be well in his prime up until he died of old age. He didn't look a day over thirty, at any rate. This may just have been age-retardation magic, though, considering Eriol is the same age as Fujitaka but doesn't look a day over ten years old.

Meiling is, of course, the most physically adept person in the cast, and has no magical potential. I'm not saying to be physically fit you have to be magical - just that being physically fit seems to come naturally to magic users.

Maybe Clow was just a physical fitness nut and passed it on to his descendants and reincarnation. But I still think magic has a bit to do with being a badass, even if you can also be badass without it.

Tomoyo's mom is a good point. I forgot about her. I guess Sakura and Toya have good genes from both sides of the family (even though they apparently skipped their mother)!

Edit: I'm not sure I agree with 'Yukito isn't human, so it doesn't count' as an argument. But that's getting into fanon territory on my part. Which this whole thing is, honestly...

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Agreed that magic does consume physical energy. But that's a common trope, magic being tiring.

Clow's mother was from the Li clan, that's confirmed by both manga and anime.

The Li clan is an ancient family of warriors that's been kicking asses and taking names in China for gods know how long.

So yeah, chances are pretty high that Clow was a physical fitness nut because his mother had him train martial arts since he was a little kid if Syaoran and Meiling are any kind of measuring stick on the Li Clan's child education policies.

The show is kinda biased in that basically every magician we meet is directly related to the Li clan of martial arts nuts that's been breeding natural warriors for centuries. Except for the ghost lady from the 1st movie, that one didn't seem to have much on the way of physical fitness.

Fujitaka's also a reincarnation of Clow Reed on the anime, that's kinda of a main plot point for Tomoyo's mother hating him ""

Poor Nadeshiko gets an inglorious death indeed. Altough the fact that she remains as ghost/angel indicates she had powerful magic powers of her own.

As for Yukito, c'mon, Clow literally made him out of magic. He literally runs on magic and will just vanish away without it, whereas Toya survived sacrificing his magic for him.

[cobaltstarfire]

Yeah, Tomoyo has a quite unique concept of "personal space".

Spoiler: Between-chapters pic from the early manga, no actual spoiler

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The authors swear that this scene is simply Tomoyo fixing Sakura's hair as they get ready for a festival or something.

Tomoyo and most other young children. There probably isn't any pretext in as much stuff as you guys are putting there, even despite the implications of Tomoyo's feelings.

Spoiler: durp

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Isn't Tomoyo also an author avatar, or was that only the Li sisters?

[Durkoala]

Yeah, I'm probably reading into it a bit much, but if I were wearing a dress I wouldn't want anybody looking up it (barring SO), no matter how good a friend they were. That goes double if they have a video camera.

Now I sort of know how to Let's Watch, I'm thinking of increasing the number of episodes watched per week. I'm not sure what I'll do when I reach end of the first arc: I might keep going or I might fill one slot with another Magical Girl series, because I mean to watch at least two of them, then PMMM.

I'd also like to ask about my episode list. Right now, I'm giving them jokey titles related to the Card of the week. Should I keep doing that, or is it less confusing to use the actual episode titles?

[deuterio12]

Yeah, I'm probably reading into it a bit much, but if I were wearing a dress I wouldn't want anybody looking up it (barring SO), no matter how good a friend they were. That goes double if they have a video camera.

Remember, Sakura does belong to the cheerleading squad, where she practises blackflips while wearing dresses, so she's probably used to that kind of thing.

Altough on the other hand, as cobaltstarfire pointed out, probably simply kid's innocence as well ("what's wrong with my best friend looking under my dress? We're both equal down there").

Now I sort of know how to Let's Watch, I'm thinking of increasing the number of episodes watched per week. I'm not sure what I'll do when I reach end of the first arc: I might keep going or I might fill one slot with another Magical Girl series, because I mean to watch at least two of them, then PMMM.

I'd also like to ask about my episode list. Right now, I'm giving them jokey titles related to the Card of the week. Should I keep doing that, or is it less confusing to use the actual episode titles?

Fine by me either way, half a vote for jokey titles.

Spoiler: durp

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Isn't Tomoyo also an author avatar, or was that only the Li sisters?

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None are officialy confirmed as such, but my money's on the Li sisters as being the author avatars because they're four and they serve no other purpose but fanservice drool all over Sakura, Tomoyo, Toya and Yukito.

Tomoyo gets too much frustations to be an author avatar. She keeps trying to explain Sakura she truly loves her and keeps getting pushed back in the friend zone. She being an author avatar would have some... Disturbing implications, because Tomoyo's behavior is only tolerable because she's also a little girl. If Tomoyo was a guy and/or older she would make top ten of most creepy anime characters ever.

[Yuki Akuma]

I'd also like to ask about my episode list. Right now, I'm giving them jokey titles related to the Card of the week. Should I keep doing that, or is it less confusing to use the actual episode titles?

Joke titles are fine. CCS doesn't exactly have the most interesting episode titles in the world, anyway.

Re: deuterio

Spoiler: Continued Ending Spoilers

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Okay, yeah. On second thought, all of the information we have on magic users in the CCSverse is incredibly biased towards a powerful clan of badass martial artists. XXXholic and Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle are in-continuity with CCS, but I haven't managed to get hold of them yet, so I don't know how the mages in those are.

I don't think the anime ever actually spells out Fujitaka being Clow's reincarnation, although yeah he definitely is meant to be in the anime continuity anyway.

[Durkoala]

Yes, I don't think Sakura really cares, and of her stalkers, Tomoyo probably isn't particularly a problem: she's trusted and supportive and takes everything in stride. I'm much more worried about Yuki. He's not a stalker in the usual sense, but he is feeding Sakura's infatuation, and may have been since a long time before this happenned. That's very scary behaviour: no matter what the end goal is (and as far as I know, it could be some thing like 'End the world'), it's going to be horrible for Sakura when it comes to light.

Yuki is probably a sorcerer. We've seen him before the Cards were released, so he probably isn't a Card. Going by the law of conservation of detail, he's probably related to Clow somehow. Of course, he could be some kind of monster we haven't seen yet. I still haven't completely rubbed out the theory that he's a Card who can manipulate memories, either.

Spoiler: Digression

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I once read a book about a pair of sisters and their family, being preyed on by the vampiric Uncle. The sisters have marks on their necks, the brother is becoming pale and spacey, the parents brittle and thin. After many attempts keeping the Uncle away, such as locks, staying at another sister's house and futiley telling people there's a vampire, the viewpoint sister goes to an authority figure (a teacher, I think) and, bit by bit, drips out the information that the other sister doesn't exist and, like her brother's drug use, was a way to cope with the trauma of

Spoiler: Triggers: sexual abuse

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her uncle raping her nightly.

That completely turned what I thought was going on upside down, as the imaginary sister was treated as another character until that scene, featuring in the real sister's history in several memories.

I like doing the joke titles, and I don't think anyone remembers the real ones anyway. Can I ask that if you can't remember the episodes, can you at least label which arc it spoils? Just to give me something to look forward to?
If there's a general outcry about the joke titles, I'll change them.

Btw, is Clow Reed's name in the eastern order? The Clow cards sound like they're named after him, like they're his children, but I've only heard Reed as a surname.

[Yuki Akuma]

I am about 99.99% sure Clow is his given name. The Clow Cards are named after him, but remember - Sakura signs the cards with her given name, too.

Spoiler: Third Arc/Episode 50-ish Spoilers

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Also, when she transforms them and realigns them with her own magic, they're named Sakura Cards.

Spoiler: Later On In The Third Arc Spoilers

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Also, Clow Reed's familiars call him 'Clow'. As Eriol's familiars call him 'Eriol', and Clow has a very close relationship with them, it's probably safe to assume they're being familiar and using his given name.

[cobaltstarfire]

I can't wait until you get far enough into the show to have a lot of your questions and suspicions answered, it'll be real interesting seeing how you react.

[deuterio12]

Yes, I don't think Sakura really cares, and of her Stalkers, Tomoyo probably isn't particularly a problem: she's trusted and supportive and takes everything in stride. I'm much more worried about Yuki. He's not a stalker in the usual sense, but he is feeding Sakura's infatuation, and may have been since a long time before this happenned. That's very scary behaviour: no matter what the end goal is (and as far as I know, it could be some thing like 'End the world'), it's going to be horrible for Sakura when it comes to light.

You're completely right that Yukito is filled with surprises. You're also completely right that Yukito is gonna reveal something that'll make Sakura's young innocent heart horrified. The funny thing is that you're so close yet so far for what's gonna happen and what's gonna trigger what.

Spoiler: late third arc spoilers as well, damnit so much plot stuff only revealed in the 3rd arc

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Yukito's actually a magic being created by Clow to judge the new card captor, counterpart to Kero, and almost kills/brainwashes Sakura. He's Yue actually, with "Yukito" being just a disguise to mingle among mortals. Also implied to have been designed that way by Clow specifically to get on Sakura's good side and become her love partner.

Sakura doesn't really mind any of the above and remains in love with Yukito.

But Yukito's in love with Sakura's older brother. That's why he's nice to her. To help him get on her brother's good side. And when Yukito tells her that to the face and that he actually has no romantic interest for her, Sakura holds for a few minutes before breaking down in tears harder than in any other point in the whole series.

Spoiler: Continued Ending Spoilers

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Okay, yeah. On second thought, all of the information we have on magic users in the CCSverse is incredibly biased towards a powerful clan of badass martial artists. XXXholic and Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle are in-continuity with CCS, but I haven't managed to get hold of them yet, so I don't know how the mages in those are.

I don't think the anime ever actually spells out Fujitaka being Clow's reincarnation, although yeah he definitely is meant to be in the anime continuity anyway.

Spoiler: other series discussion actually, CCS kinda has of a pseudo-sequel

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First, do yourself a favor and read the TRC manga. The anime version is awful and stagnates the first arc until it isn't funny anymore.

Spoiler: TRC minor spoilers

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Right in the first volume we have alternate dimension Tomoyo who still looks pretty meek physically but is now a powerful magician able to easily subdue the greatest warrior in her world. With magic tentacles.

Then there's the big bad that's also an uber magician and actually looks old!

But then there's also your fair quota of young-looking mages that are also fitness adepts.

Also, "continuity" is a funny word, the whole series is about visiting different dimensions and meeting alternate versions of beloved CLAMP characters, that may or may not be the original ones. Trust. Nobody.

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Not even Sakura-hime.

[Durkoala]

You guys are dripping all these hints on me to get me to do more episodes, aren't you? I'm on to you.

Because I'm enjoying it so much, I might fold. Maybe.

[Durkoala]

Well, I hope that it gets better than this.

EPISODE 5: Sakura, a panda and a Cute shop.

Spoiler: Started this one in a bit of a mood

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And we open in a girl’s bedroom at night. I’m not sure if it's Tomoyo, Chiharu or a new character: the hair’s Tomoyo’s colour, but in pigtails and they all have the same face. Her collection of soft Toys begins to bounce around the room. It’s probably a Card, but I’m hoping it might be something else: Kerbie isn’t a card, but he’s a magical creature so there must be others.

Episode title! Sakura, a panda and a cute shop. One of the toys was a panda, so I suppose that’s what’s being referred to.

Sakura’s skating to school, greeting everybody and getting some air. I’m feeling happier already, thank you, Sakura. We then cut to a shop: ‘Twin Bells’. It’s closed, but there’s a woman outside who must be Tomoyo’s mother: she has the same hair and a dress that looks a lot like some of Tomoyo’s creations. The shop’s a bit smaller than I would expect from someone of her implied wealth, so maybe I’m wrong. She’s just received a delivery of boxes.

Sakura skates past and observes that a new shop is going to open. The woman drops the box she’s carrying. As it’s as badly packaged as any box in fiction, it bursts open, spilling out the toys from the opening. Sakura skates over to help and we learn the woman’s name: Matsumoto Maki. So she isn’t related to Tomoyo, but she may be related to a busty grim reaper. She tells Sakura that her shop should be open by the time school finishes. This whole conversation is very coincidental.

During or after cheerleading practice, Chiharu approaches Sakura, letting us know that the girl in the opening wasn’t Chiharu because the hairstyle is different and that she’s going to go to Twin Bells because she loves cute toys. Rika and Naoko (Bobcut and Wavey, I presume, but I still don’t know who is who) are also coming, so would Sakura-chan also like to come? Yes, she would, and so would Tomoyo.

Sakura pauses to see Tomoyo singing. According to the Sakura-dex, Tomoyo’s in the choir and has won a lot of prizes for singing. Tomoyo’s song seems strangely familiar, but it’s distracting how her mouth is the only thing moving, and that it’s nearly up her nose. Tomoyo’s singing is going to be used later on, I know.

The shop’s open, but it shouldn’t be. Half the boxes are unopened and everything else is a mess. This is because Maki is really clumsy. Also, she’s probably the “girl” from the pre-title. I’d make a comment that this is what using the same model really is, but I don’t think LaZodiac reads this.
Of course, Sakura and friends offer to help.

After a montage of the cleaning (POI: Daimonji products on sale, and Sakura’s difficulties with some tape), Maki calls for a tea break. During the conversation (a ‘thank you’/‘no problem’ thing), Chiharu mentions that she loves stuffed toys. One of the unopened boxes bursts and out jumps the panda. It bounces over to the group in a way that isn’t suspicious at all, heading for Chiharu. Maki is noticeably nervous, and when Chiharu picks it up the music gets creepy, then jumps into a scare chord. I had to replay that last part to make sure I heard it right. Was the director of subtlety ill when they made this episode?

We then jump to what I think is Chiharu’s house. It’s filled with soft toys and is really big. As Chiharu prepares to show the gang around the place, there’s a loud crash. Chiharu runs back to a room (presumably hers, but I have no idea) and goes into shock because the Panda has disappeared. Just gone, no buildup. This is the Worst Episode you were talking about, isn’t it?

Back at School, probably the following day, Tomoyo and Sakura are talking about the stupid strange burglary behind of a load of older girls cheering over Toya’s football prowess. Or possibly Yuki’s. Don’t go for Yuki, girls, he’s hanging out with a ten year old and he’s got a dark secret. Don’t know what, but he’s got one.
Anyway, Tomoyo mentions that there’s a story about a strange shop where, if you buy something from it, bad luck happens to you, like getting things stolen. She says it could be Maki’s Shop.
...The panda is stealing things for Maki and forcing her to go along with it; this is just like Wallace and Gromit, except that the panda isn’t a four-foot killer robot.

Tomoyo and Sakura go back to the shop. Forgetting everything they talked about, they are surprised to see the panda back in the shop. Maki spills it out: this isn’t the first shop she’s owned, she moved here because people thought she was a thief, her now-dead fiancé loved toys and wanted his own toyshop, she doesn’t want to stop because he’ll be sad but she can’t take the pressure anymore. It would be a sad tale if this wasn’t the (second) worst ghost story I’ve read. And an ad Break!

Hooray! According to Kerbie, there isn’t a Clow card that fits the situation! The good parts of the show aren’t going to get drivelled on!

Tomoyo distracts Maki while Sakura (already suited up) and Kerbie go looking for a Card. The panda sneaks away to hide. Sakura has apparently gone blind and Kerberos is flirting with a plush cat. Yes, really.

Oh, no. Kerbie can feel a Clow card after all. I was sure it was going to be the fiancé’s ghost behind this.
The JUMP Card. Are they even trying? It has the power to make everything in the room move across the screen in a poorly animated way.

Ok, the way the Card makes all of the stuffed animals form into a big snake and jump through the window and across the road is pretty funny. Maki walks in at the wrong time and faints. Tomoyo, it’s a good thing you can’t film this episode, trust me.

Sakura somehow outruns the card. Seriously? After showing off its power to create useless explosions of soft toys, the card suddenly develops the power to pull Sakura into the sky.
Sakura finally does what she should have done in the first place and activates the Fly card. Because Jump is too hard to catch, she calls Wood to ensnare it.
Tomoyo finally arrives, and distracts Sakura long enough for the Card to escape and call all its toys to it. And form into a giant version of itself. Please let Sakura get this ability, so we can get something out of this mess.
The monster is defeated by falling over. The monster is defeated by falling over. I never thought I’d say this, but can we please have Yukito back? He knows how to be terrifying and subtle.

And Sakura and Tomoyo try to convince us that this was a good episode. You’re eight nine ten, girls, you aren’t fooling anyone.

This was a bad episode. There was no tension, we didn’t get to find out about Sakura’s other friends, we didn’t find any new supernatural threats despite having hints at a ghost, the card was stupid in concept and behaviour and the final fight dragged on forever: It felt a lot like the person in charge of making the Card was just making up new abilities for it whenever it was in a tight spot. (How does jumping relate to creating a giant exoskeleton out of toys?) The victory was entirely self-induced and Sakura did nothing to make it happen (and how does Sakura beat this ubercard? Umm... Idk. It trips over and explodes!).
Even Sakura’s costume was under whelming: a blue dress with a flower on the front and buttons down the back. It could have been fished out Grandmother’s clothes chest.

The one good thing was the Card design. This might be because I’ve been wanting to see more non-human cards, but I thought it looked a lot like an evil jumpy thing should. Pink, sharp angles, fluffy fur, antennae that make it look like a rabbit or a flea, stubby wings, prominent feet. It’s also got a bit of a Seussical feel to it.

As you may have noticed, my attention slipped a bit in the second half. Please tell me I can open the ‘Worst episode’ spoiler now, so I can get something worthwhile out of this.

[cobaltstarfire]

Aw it's too bad you didn't like this episode.

I found this one to be highly amusing myself.

[Durkoala]

So it's not the Worst Episode?

...

[cobaltstarfire]

I don't know, I can't think of any CCS episode I disliked in particular, you'll probably have to wait for someone more critical to come by and clarify what the "worst" episode is. Because I have no idea what that would be.

Edit: Oh ok, Reddish Mages post prompted me to go back and look at the spoilers (I normally skip spoiler boxes in threads like this). And this episode isn't the one talked about in that spoiler. I honestly don't think the episode being talked about is bad, but I also enjoyed the one you just saw and didn't like so eh.

[Reddish Mage]

The spoiler is making its claim about one of the upcoming episodes but I think its highly debatable whether the episode is really all that bad.

[Yuki Akuma]

The Jump episode is, in my opinion, the worst episode. Apparently, in its unsealed form, the Jump card has entirely different powers to its sealed form.

And the Jump card is a total jerk. Annoyingly, its power is kinda useful.

[deuterio12]

So it's not the Worst Episode?

...

Unfortunately, I must say that was the 2nd worst episode, not yet the bottom one. At least it had some funny magic action and a MILF in a shop of cute stuff, which is always positive in my book (also, unlike many other tertiary characters from CCS who get a name but are never heard of again, that's not the last we'll be seeing of miss Matsumoto). But viewer's opinions may vary it seems, you'll be the judge of that when you reach the episode I was talking about. Worst case scenario, you've already endured one of the two worst parts of the show.

EDIT: Trivia, on the manga the Jump is giant by default.

Spoiler: Sakura being badass on the manga, no actual spoilers

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Good news is, from your comments you should quite enjoy the next episode in the series! Saying anything else about that would be kinda spoilerish. It's an episode definitely best enjoyed when you don't know what to expect.

The Jump episode is, in my opinion, the worst episode. Apparently, in its unsealed form, the Jump card has entirely different powers to its sealed form.

And the Jump card is a total jerk. Annoyingly, its power is kinda useful.

Spoiler: worst CCS episode debate

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I stand by my previous opinion, the released Silent has the power to pretend it is a painting and teleport people. And then Sakura somehow remote-captures it with the Shadow, something she never does again. And there's no proper action scenes. And the whole episode happens in a supposed high-security museum that has no cameras and a single guard that is a coward. And the Silent is never heard of again (pun intended).

At least the Jump becomes one of the most used cards.

[cobaltstarfire]

Spoiler: worst CCS episode debate

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Oh, c'mon, the released Silent has the power to pretend it is a painting and teleport people. And then Sakura somehow remote-captures it with the Shadow, something she never does again. And there's no proper action scenes. And the whole episode happens in a supposed high-security museum that has no cameras and a single guard that is a coward. And the Silent is never heard of again (pun intended).

At least the Jump becomes one of the most used cards.

Just because it doesn't meet your standards of what an episode should be like doesn't mean it's the worst episode ever.

I mean from my perspective the episode with jump was hilarious, and if I'm entertained by something I'm not going to classify it as bad. If I had to pick a "worst" from the batch Durkoala has seen so far I'd actually say that the one with Wood and Rain was the most dull to me. But I'm not going around bashing my opinion into peoples head.

[deuterio12]

All of CCS episodes were/are entertaining to me, but some were/are more entertaining than others. I saying one is worst doesn't mean I'm saying I thought it was bad.

[Durkoala]

The Jump episode is, in my opinion, the worst episode. Apparently, in its unsealed form, the Jump card has entirely different powers to its sealed form.

And the Jump card is a total jerk. Annoyingly, its power is kinda useful.

I'm not sure how it could have entirely different powers, as most of its abilities were to do with jumping (except for the giant bit), but I suppose I'll see in the future. Also, how is it useful when Sakura already has the power to fly?

What I didn't like about the episode was how there was no real tension. The previous fights had buildup: the Fly was the cherry on top of Sakura's worries about being the Cardcaptor, the Shadow and the Watery were haunting presences, and Rain/Wood were a disaster waiting to happen. This card was presented to us really obviously, had a pointless motive that felt unconnected to the rest of the episode, did nothing to add to the plot and just kept getting new powers to foil the heroes until it tripped over and exploded.

There were bits in the episode that were just there for padding, like Tomoyo's little bit of singing. What annoys me the most is that there some hints about things that I would have wanted to see: something supernatural that was unconnected to the Cards, and a character (an adult, to boot) aiding a Card, whether willingly or not. I was expecting Tomoyo to calm the ghost with her singing, or for Maki to aid them against the card that was ruining her life, but that didn't happen.

There were some good bits, I'll admit: we learned the names of Sakura's other friends (even if I'm not sure who's who yet), I liked Maki and will be glad to see her return, we found out a bit about Chiharu, The Jump fight had some good bits mixed in with the idiocy and I liked the little montage of tidying the shop quite a lot.

Are more of the Cards giant size in the manga? How does the episode with Jump go in the manga? That thing is not going to fit in a teddy bear.

[cobaltstarfire]

Jump doesn't have any motives because like Kero said it's a really stupid card, it's happy just sowing chaos. I guess this episode would count as filler for you since it didn't move the plot or anything like that. There's going to be more episodes like that unfortunately as they added something like 30 cards to the anime specifically to pad it out (one of the reasons I suggested the manga for you since you didn't want to deal with a longer anime).


Jump is useful because it allows for more finesse than fly does if I remember right, at least when I compare what I remember of her uses of fly with her uses of jump.

[Qwertystop]

Also it's less visible, I expect. No broomstick-staff with wings twice as long as itself.

[Mewtarthio]

I'm not sure how it could have entirely different powers, as most of its abilities were to do with jumping (except for the giant bit), but I suppose I'll see in the future. Also, how is it useful when Sakura already has the power to fly?

I'd guess that jumping would be faster and more precise than flying, with the drawbacks that you can only jump to and from solid surfaces and can't make course corrections mid-air.

One other nitpick about the episode: How long have these cards been out? The show started in the spring (cherry blossoms in the first episode), and Sakura hasn't had summer vacation yet, so it can't have been more than a few months, and it's probably much less than that. How, then, has the Jump card managed to migrate to another city and haunt a poor shop owner until the rumors drive her out of business? That seems like a bit too short a timeframe.

That being said, I feel like the episode had some amusing moments (I especially liked Tomoyo's attempts at stalling), even if the plot was lacking.

[deuterio12]

I'm not sure how it could have entirely different powers, as most of its abilities were to do with jumping (except for the giant bit), but I suppose I'll see in the future. Also, how is it useful when Sakura already has the power to fly?

The key advantage of the Jump is that it lets Sakura keep her wand free. Let's just say that the Fly isn't the only card that morphs her magic stick.

Are more of the Cards giant size in the manga? How does the episode with Jump go in the manga? That thing is not going to fit in a teddy bear.

There was just one other card that was a bit bigger in the manga if I remember correctly, but the biggest cards of them all are yet to appear on the anime and never show up in the manga (remember, the anime has almost triple the cards of the manga).

Spoiler: Open when you see the biggest cards of them all. You'll know it when you see it

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Of course I'm talking about The Big (cheap pun is cheap) and The Create that not tecnically being very big, can create stuff that rivals The Big on size.

And we never get any more details about The Jump's capture since that scene is an excerpt from one of Tomoyo's videos in the manga, actually the very first pages of the first manga. How Sakura ever met The Jump there will forever be a mistery.

Jump doesn't have any motives because like Kero said it's a really stupid card, it's happy just sowing chaos. I guess this episode would count as filler for you since it didn't move the plot or anything like that. There's going to be more episodes like that unfortunately as they added something like 30 cards to the anime specifically to pad it out (one of the reasons I suggested the manga for you since you didn't want to deal with a longer anime).

Meh, altough I admit some of the anime episodes are a bit padding, I rather like most of the new cards they've added, in particular those that are used multiple times. The characters also end better developed thanks to the extra time and I also prefer the anime ending. Manga Sakura is just a more flat character than anime Sakura in my opinion. And even some of the one-shot card episodes are pretty good.

Spoiler: episode 32

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The Change episode is pretty much the most hilarious one in the whole series if you ask me.

One other nitpick about the episode: How long have these cards been out? The show started in the spring (cherry blossoms in the first episode), and Sakura hasn't had summer vacation yet, so it can't have been more than a few months, and it's probably much less than that. How, then, has the Jump card managed to migrate to another city and haunt a poor shop owner until the rumors drive her out of business? That seems like a bit too short a timeframe.

Actually, at least for the start the show implies quite a bit of time happens between episodes, just that no magic action happens and thus they don't bother showing it.

More in particular, Sakura and the girls are with their dark sailor uniforms meant for Winter, meaning Summer has already passed (they have another school uniform for the warmer months). If I remember correctly, the summer vacation of that year is completely skipped. The girls had fun, no cards appeared.

Time skips are completely confirmed in

Spoiler: episode 8

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Where Sakura tells Syaoran that she's been at almost a year already trying to capture the cards.

[cobaltstarfire]

Meh, altough I admit some of the anime episodes are a bit padding, I rather like most of the new cards they've added, in particular those that are used multiple times. The characters also end better developed thanks to the extra time and I also prefer the anime ending. Manga Sakura is just a more flat character than anime Sakura in my opinion. And even some of the one-shot card episodes are pretty good.

Stop trying to argue with me on every other thing I say please, I'm mostly here to engage with Durkoala, not to debate every other insignificant thing with you. Durkoala wants the story to move along and unfold more quickly, and didn't want to have to watch anything long to begin with, which is why I suggested the Manga way back in the original thread. I can't even remember which cards are added to the anime and which ones are manga original so I can't make a value judgement on any of that. Either way the anime is longer because it was padded out with new cards regardless of if those are good episodes or not.

So like just back off, it's getting really annoying to have you pop in and needle me with every other post I make.

[Durkoala]

Sorry I haven't been with you, I've been typing up big posts, some more related to RWBY than others.

I guess this episode would count as filler for you since it didn't move the plot or anything like that.

That's what I didn't like about the episode. It's filler. the other episodes introduced hints of later developments, or told us how the magic worked. This has not done anything to advance anything, not counting the reappearence of Maki. Which hasn't happened yet, so I don't count it.

I'd guess that jumping would be faster and more precise than flying, with the drawbacks that you can only jump to and from solid surfaces and can't make course corrections mid-air.

One other nitpick about the episode: How long have these cards been out? The show started in the spring (cherry blossoms in the first episode), and Sakura hasn't had summer vacation yet, so it can't have been more than a few months, and it's probably much less than that. How, then, has the Jump card managed to migrate to another city and haunt a poor shop owner until the rumors drive her out of business? That seems like a bit too short a timeframe.

That being said, I feel like] the episode had some amusing moments (I especially liked Tomoyo's attempts at stalling), even if the plot was lacking.

I'd have thought that flying was faster and more precise, but that may because of the pokémon games.

I got a bit of a timeskip feel to some of the episodes. After all, we can't expect Sakura to find a new card each day and we've seen that some Cards may remain sealed until something changes. It may have been some months since the first episode.

Also it's less visible, I expect. No broomstick-staff with wings twice as long as itself.

That's an advantage, I suppose.

[Durkoala]

I picked a really bad time to try and start doing extra episdes, so this one is a bit late. I'll have to think about this a bit more, but now I have to rush off for something. I look forward to your comments when I get back.

EPISODE 6:Sakura and memories of her mom Mum

Spoiler: DIS GON B GUD

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Straight into the title card today. As a rule I don’t like title cards, but they’re tolerable if there’s no voice reading out what’s on the screen. Anyway, it says ‘Sakura and memories of her Mom’. This should be good.

And today the voiceover is being done by Bobcut. Maybe we’ll get to find out if her name is Rika or Naoko.
She’s taking a shortcut through the woods behind the school, when she is distracted by a ball of light. It leads her to a space that looks out on the city, then sort of explodes! A horrible pink... erm... well IT LOOKS LIKE A TENTACLE WITH ONE EYE, I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, I SWEAR. Is there some kind of troll on the writing staff this episode? Was it the Director of Preventing Unfortunate Designs’s turn to have a week off? Anyway, it turns out Bobcut is telling this at cheerleading and Sakura interrupts by screaming her head off. Come on, Sakura, you’ve dealt with worse things, even if you don’t know it.

Bobcut is Naoko. Now I can have less red lines when I’m typing this up, hooray! Chiharu wants to see if the story is true, which sends Sakura into shock. Wavy Rika doesn’t do cheerleading, because the others mention they’ll have to find her and bring her along. Sakura protests, but her suggestions are shot down by Chiharu. It’s worth noting that Naoko looks less than thrilled to go back.

On the walk down, the conversation turns to Chiharu’s mother’s birthday. The shots of Sakura make it clear that she doesn’t like this. Fortunately, when they ask Sakura, the girls recognise their mistake quickly. The Sakura-dex mentions that the coming Sunday is Sakura’s Mother’s.... it doesn’t say, but it’s either the anniversary of her birth or death.
At the place where Naoko met the thing, nothing is there. Now that we can get a proper look, it’s really dangerous: the woods are in a park and here there is a sheer drop to the road at least twenty metres below. There is a safety rail, but it’s broken.

And the ball of light reappears behind them! This time, it materialises the silhouette of a woman, and the girls run screaming, somehow avoiding the cliff.

It turns out that they’ve all seen different things: Sakura saw ‘a long haired woman’ (a common form for Japanese ghosts, iirc), Naoko saw the something ‘one-eyed and round’, Rika a pink thing with fangs, Chiharu ‘a blurry pointy-eared ...’ and Tomoyo saw a giant bread... well, it sounds like a sausage roll (Nikuman). Oh, they’re those dumpling things that turn up every now and again. Sakura is dumbfounded, and even Tomoyo sounds a bit embarrassed about it. I suppose we’re dealing with the Fear card?

In the bathroom Kerberos is laughing over Sakura being scared when she’s fought all those Clow Cards, and playing with a toy ship. Sakura isn’t amused and says that she understands Cards, but hates things that she doesn’t know about. Wait, she wishes for Kerbie to turn into his true form and be her boyfriend?! Where did this come from? Is Yuki really a memory Card who’s doing some trolling? You know what, until this is proved otherwise, I’m saying it’s Yuki’s fault.
Kerbie says that she’ll need the earth and fire cards for that. Actually, never mind. I rewound the video to check if they were the right cards, and Sakura actually says ‘bodyguard’. You’re off the hook this time, Yukito.

At dinner, Sakura notices a picture of her mother on the table. According to the Sakura-dex, i t was taken when she was sixteen, which is a lie as she looks more like thirty. She was in modelling at the time, but that only explains so much. Fujikata saved every picture. Awww. Her name was Nadeshiko.

Sakura’s doing the dishes when the phone rings. Kerbie picks it up. It’s Tomoyo, and she say that Chiharu took the others to the woods again. Why?

It may or may not be a Card, but Sakura has to suit up again... in a bunny dress. Ear headband, fake tail: your work’s been declining lately, Miss Daimonji, but this is hilarious. Sakura in tears is the icing on the cake. Because the ‘ghost’ is causing injuries, she’ll stop it before somebody runs off the edge. Attagirl, Sakura.

Well, crap. The light was behind them the whole time. That’s creepy. Sakura’s found a few brain cells since the Jump encounter, and immediately activates Fly to chase after it.

Oh, ****. The woman in the ball of light is Sakura’s mother. When Kerberos tries to see what’s going on, something strikes him down. This is bad. Sakura walks towards her mother ̶ and the cliff. This is worse. Completely spellbound, she topples over.

We see a hand catch Sakura’s. A woman’s hand, with a wedding ring. Three guess who that’s going to be. For some reason Yuki is out at night, right here. I actually don’t think that he has anything to do with this, because he seems very surprised to see Sakura falling slowly (because her invisible mother’s ghost is holding her up) and he has to throw his bag away and run to catch her. The bag disappears, btw.

Sakura wakes up in Yuki’s house wearing different clothes. Yuki enters through the door and gives her some tea. Put lots of sugar in it, Yuki, it’s good for shock and she’s had a terrible ordeal. He mentions that his grandmother changed Sakura’s clothes and her bunny dress is in the laundry. The Sakura-dex mentions that Yuki lives with his grandparents, but doesn’t mention his parents.

Yuki tidies things up: No, he had no idea about Sakura and was very surprised when she fell (this needs a grain of salt, methinks), Tomoyo’s bodyguards took her home, she took Kerbie with her and Toya will be coming to take Sakura home. Sakura confesses that she saw her mother and worries about what her appearance there means. Yuki asks her if she really thinks her mother would put her in danger. Even if he has his usual smile, I think that is a good thing for Sakura to hear.

What? What? Ok, to set the scene, Yuki and Toya are bringing Sakura home, she’s sleeping. Yuki tells Toya that Sakura saw her mum and asks if Toya has as well. Far too casually for somebody just outside the masquerade, Toya says he has. HE CAN SEE GHOSTS. This isn’t something I’m making up, he says that he can see ghosts but Sakura can only faintly sense them. Without mentioning the Cards, Yuki says that Sakura is having troubles as well. The whole thing is far too casual: They’re acting like a pair of experienced monster hunters or something. It really reminds me of the times in Bleach we got to see the chessmasters talking amongst themselves.

Tomoyo and Kerbie come and see Sakura at home. Kerbie is very sad over what happened. For the first time, he’s thinking that this is too dangerous for Sakura. He’s also not happy that whatever the ball of light is, it’s far too powerful for him to fight in this form. Sakura decides to try again: If it’s a Card, it’s up to her to deal with it, if it’s her mother she wants to know why she’s back when Toya said she had left for heaven years ago.

Back at the urban cliff, Sakura is wearing a less ridiculous yellow dress with big shoulders and an old futuristic vibe. Tomoyo and Kerbie are worried about her, but waiting for the ball of light to return.

And there it is, hovering on the edge of the cliff. When the image of Nadeshiko appears, it’s visible to all. Sakura begins to question it. It doesn’t speak and just flies back. In her haste to reach it, Sakura falls off the cliff again. She flashes back to the scene with Yuki asking if her mother would put her in danger. Oh, yes, Sakura’s back now.
She calls Fly and confronts the image on the cliff. It says nothing, but flickers. Kerbie recognises the pattern that appears and tells Sakura to bind it.
It’s the ILLUSION Card, every creepy image has been created because people were scared by the spooky woods, and the ghost stories. Tomoyo saw a Nikuman because she was hungry, and Sakura was thinking of her mother. The force that threw Kerberos back was Sakura’s own power, because she didn’t want this moment interrupted.

Next Sunday, Sakura runs off to cheerleading practice. She places a present by her mother’s picture, and wishes her a happy birthday. Toya sees Mum as an Angel watching Sakura. She tells him she was worried this time, then fades away.

Spoiler: Thoughts

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And that’s it. This was a great episode! It was touching, it was a bit scary, and we (well, me. You and your spoilered boxes...) learned a huge amount of things, both in a general world building sense, and about Sakura’s life.

This shows exactly what I meant about tension: We had a mysterious ball of light showing up that did strange things and put people’s lives at risk, instead of a Panda toy that snuck out of people’s houses while accompanied by an off-camera sound artist who thinks that modern soundtracks re too subtle. We knew it was there, but we didn’t know what it was or why it was doing that.

We also had a ton of exposition mixed in here: The Wood card isn’t the Earth card is small, but important; the fact that Kerberos is sealed in this little form goes a long way to explaining his ineptitude; we finally got to find out the names of the friends; and we found out that ghosts (and angels) exist.

Of course, the bombshell has to be Toya and Yuki’s conversation. Toya, and Sakura to a lesser extent, have supernatural powers and he seems to be fairly comfortable with Yuki knowing this. I don’t know if he knows Yuki’s secrets, whatever they are, but the two of them are well aware of the supernatural and I think they may know that they each have a connection to it. I wonder if Sakura’s forcefield is because she has these powers, or because she’s the Cardcaptor.

All of the character moments were great. Sakura’s conversations about her mother were touching, Yuki telling Toya to be a bit nicer to Sakura was great, and I really liked Kerbie and Tomoyo’s worry over Sakura. Strange as they are, they care about her a lot. I’m feeling surprisingly amiable towards Yuki right now, partly because I don’t think he had anything to do with this: maybe it’s my views on wasting food, but the fact he had to throw away his snack says to me that he was genuinely taken by surprise. This is just a tempory truce, Yuki, don’t get used to it.

What interests me the most is the idea that Toya and Yuki are (part of?) a supernatural protection group. Toya’s been changing jobs a lot, and is always where he’s needed to be, while Yuki has been guiding Sakura in his creepy way. Given that Toya’s been able to see ghosts since school, I wonder how long they’ve been at this, and what they’ve dealt with before the Cards appeared.
Are there any other supernatural humans aside from sorcerers? That would be another new side to this increaseingly complex mess.
This whole paragraph has been thinking out loud. Please don’t talk to me about it: these are answers I’d rather find in my own time. I don’t even want oblique hints.